Video: Resistencia Saharaui

Printed version / Edición impresa

Some of the many hardships suffered by the residents in the Central Asian country include a lack of water and basic services as well as non-existent education and a risk of dying in public places.

.

Armando Reyes

.

One of the greatest controversies in Afghanistan is the lack of something as precious as drinking water. Although Mother Nature, according to experts, provided the region with a sufficient supply, the lack of infrastructure and the current political situation forces many people to live in the middle of a desert.

Unofficial statistics claim that nearly 73 per cent of the Afghan population lacks access to a water supply, while 95 per cent don’t have basic sanitation. As a direct result, diarrheal diseases claim the lives of more than 48, 500 children each year.

This is a chronic problem in rural areas and in most cities, including the capital, Kabul, where only 25 per cent of its residents, according to reports, enjoy sterilised water.

Most Afghans are required to get their water from open-air sources such as rivers, springs, streams, ponds and wells. Most of these are contaminated by either defecation, lack of sanitation or the presence of infected animals.

The Central Asian country provides 2,775 cubic metres of water per habitant every year while an estimated 1,700 metres would be sufficient to meet domestic and industrial needs and energy production, without affecting the ecological balance.

Health

A survey, conducted in 2012 by the United National Consolidation Campaign, found that one in seven thousand Afghans is a health worker. The shortage of teachers is also evident, with one male teacher for every 101 students and one female teacher for every 344 students.

The results of a survey undertaken in 2010 indicate that little more than 57% of the Afghan population lives within an hour’s travel of a public health centre.

The Afghan government has promised to boost its Millennium Development Objectives in 2014, which include increasing access to drinkable water from 27% to 50% and raising the possibility of adequate health for the inhabitants from 5 to 50 percentage points. They plan on extending this coverage to the entire population by 2020.

However, unplanned development of cities, lack of sanitation, migration to urban areas, coupled with social and political instability and the internal conflict, suggest the government’s plans are just empty promises.

The non-governmental organisation, Consumer Service Rights, urged the Government and international organizations to work for the development and implementation of a comprehensive health policy, collaboration between sectors and the inclusion of communities in the crusade to improve living conditions. Access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation is a fundamental right of Afghan citizens, but many continue living without it.

Mines of death

Another of the hardships suffered by the Afghans is the spread of explosive devices, planted or forgotten about, that are distributed throughout the region.

In the current state of internal conflict, the occupants of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), and the local Army, use landmines as much as the armed opposition, to limit each other’s movements.

The reality is that, since the invasion and occupation of the Asian country, U.S. bombing has deposited five thousand unexploded cluster bombs.

The researcher, Mark Hiznay, has said that these devices have become anti-personnel landmines that represent an extreme danger to the civilian population, and will continue to do so for the coming years.The war has caused physical and mental disabilities for about 800,000 Afghans, who do not have jobs, are illiterate and lack adequate medical care. Recent surveys suggest that one in five households in Afghanistan has an occupant with a physical or mental limitation.

Armed opposition also place ingenious explosives in streets where members of the ISAF occupying force frequently travel or commit suicide by exploding charges that they carry on their bodies.

This style of combat, as well as causing casualties, adds a psychological element that causes a state of paranoia and fear and prevents the military from acting objectively.

The spread of deadly devices has whetted the appetites of a number of companies engaged in bomb disposal, such as Sterling Global Operations, whose management has claimed, that within a few weeks, they had made ​​a profit of about $30 million from demining.

The Prisma News

This is the title of a documentary directed by Australian reporter, John Pilger, that exposes the long history of interventionism by the United States in Latin American countries. The majority of the subject matter revolves around the failed coup d’etat in 2002 against President Hugo Chavez. The film...

Following the success of their 2011 show ‘Urban’, the Colombian circus company returns to the UK from the 14th April to 3rd May for their new show ‘Acelere’.
With fourteen of the country’s most prominent circus performers, the new show draws is inspired by Colombia’s rich diversity of...

The drug-related language – London ‘on speed’, the ‘rush’ of city life – is deliberate. Like an addiction, the speeded-up, souped-up urban lifestyle sweeps us along in a hectic race.
Steve Latham
James Gleick wrote his book, “Faster”, on the topic; and French...

Gran told me about my father’s childhood. She recalled how as a child, he took lunch to the workers on the Antioquia Railway.
Armando Orozco Tovar
Carlos Arango Z was his name and he started working at just six-years-old to help support his family. From Tulúa, in the Cauca Valley to...

The certainty that Montmajour at Sunset was painted by the Dutchman Vincent Van Gogh Dutch revives the madness that the unique viewpoint of this artistic genius always produces.
Frade Ibis Brito
In fact, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has announced to the world the discovery of this new work...

On Tuesday the 24th of March the Bolivian guitarist and composer will give his first UK concert at the Bolivar Hall in London.
With a career lasting more than 30 years, Claure is one of the most outstanding guitarists in modern-day Bolivia.
His repertoire is essentially based on popular, traditional...

In principle, the term “democracy” implies that the people (demos) are in power (kratos) and thus, that they participate.
Mabel Encinas
However, by contrast with participatory democracies, in representative democracies, we need to ask ourselves whom the government represents and who the...

On Tuesday I was invited to a book launch organised by the Urban Hub at University College London. The book was Urban Revolution Now: Henri Lefebvre in Urban Research and Architecture.
Steve Latham
Edited by academics Łukasz Stanek, Christian Schmid, and Ákos Moravánszky, the book was a...

On International Women’s Day, the statistics did not record a single man being killed at the hands of his female companions, as if being manly was just a matter of violence.
Armando Orozco Tovar
On this day women trotted, ran, climbed and walked in big gatherings around the world, less so in...

Music and drugs, drugs and music, they seem to go hand in hand. History has left us many examples of the degradation an artist or a group can suffer when they decide to bring the two together.
Miriam Cantalapiedra Barrocal
The fusion of music and drugs has its own history, which goes back...

The 19th edition of this event will be held from the 18th to the 27th of March, where among other films shown there will be five set in Latin America.
The international organisation Human Rights Watch will present this edition of the event, which will include 16 documentaries and feature...

A journey within. This is the message of a group of photographs showing the different stages in the life of artist Malika Sqalli and her work, and will be exhibited at the Arab British Centre from the 17th to the 27th of March.
Photos by Malika Sqalli
This is a solo exhibition in London...

From the sounds of species in danger of extinction, various Latin American artists have come together to create original songs and make a record.
A Guide to the Birdsong of South America is the name of the project, which has the aim of exposing the dangerous situation suffered by these animals.
Around...

Who will have a photo of him? There is the one of the iconic guerilla hero taken in Havana by Korda, with a fortunate shot of his camera. But who made a portrait of Oscar Gil? Or who wrote about his short life? Because when they killed him he hadn’t reached 30.
Armando Orozco Tovar
This is...

I met her on a Friday night. She was helping at a youth project in inner London, to which she had been invited by a mutual friend who was a youth worker.
Steve Latham
She ran some ice-breaker games with games to loosen the kids up, for the first session of a new club promoting performing arts...

The Theatre for Identity “Teatro x la Identidad”, a movement that for 15 years has seen actors, directors and people from the theatrical world bring the message of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo to the stage, returning to The Calder Bookshop and Theatre, this time with the stage play “The...

People say sometimes the first thing that comes to their minds (we all do, I guess; however, some of us try to avoid it or at least to rectify when we get it wrong).
Mabel Encinas
Saying things like ‘excessive traffic is migrants’ fault’, ‘English people have also the right to...

Last year’s Rochester and Strood by-election victory for the United Kingdom Independence Party candidate, Mark Reckless, was a game-changer for British politics.
Steve Latham
It came hard on the heels of UKIP’s Clacton win by Douglas Carswell; both new MPs standing for seats they had previously...

“There is too much blood; too much violence”, Albert Camus. I had thought that I would start the year with good memories and nostalgia. However, the Charlie Hebdo massacre has brought back memories of when, in the late 80s, Castaño’s paramilitaries shot down ‘JUCO’ militants –...

She has worked on projects in Africa, Asia and Europe, although her work is based mainly around Latin America, the region in which she grew up.
Juanjo Andres Cuervo
Photos by Angelika Berndt
She first started in photography by helping the non-government organisation Anti Slavery International...